mike burgess, chairwoman ileana ros-lehtinen, and then the young member from oklahoma, tom cole, who is coming back on the committee. and we're delighted. we hope we once again greet you with the respect that we do, this ways and means committee, the house administration committee. we'll see if we can change your opinion a little bit. >> no. and thank you very much. welcome to the new members, including one young veteran who has chaired another committee. let me be very brief because we've been through this before in the summer of 2011. the house majority here toyed with the debt ceiling. and the ramifications were i think not only serious but severe. in terms of job creation, august of 2011 was the worst in the last three years. the market plunged in those two months 2,000 points, and it had in that period the worst single day drop in history. on august 8, it was looking at my notes on very exact, 635 points. the treasury was forced to spend well over $1 billion in interest payments, and i think we all remember so vividly that there was a downgrading of our credit rating. so a postp